JOHNNY CASH - BITTER TEARS @ 60

 

Released on October 26th, 1964, Johnny Cash's concept album, Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian, turns 60 years old today. Though some of the language may be arcane by today's standards, the sentiments and the purpose of the album remain significant in an age when first nations peoples are still seeking justice and reconciliation for abuses they've suffered at the hands of colonialists.

Cash felt a particular kinship with first nations due to his belief that he had Cherokee ancestry in his family. He was primarily of English and Scottish descent, but his paternal grandmother claimed Cherokee ancestry. However, a DNA test of Cash's daughter, Rosanne, in 2021 on the program, Finding Your Roots, found she has no known Native American markers. Regardless of genetic heritage, Cash's concern for and appreciation of first nations people and culture was sincere and heartfelt.

The 1960s was a time of social awakening, with activism towards racial injustice being one of the first frontiers of cultural revolution. With the folk scene rapidly raising awareness within the pop music landscape, country music stars like Cash were seeing an opportunity to deal with real issues, effecting real change. Peter La Farge wrote five of the songs, two were by Cash, and the final track was by Cash and Johnny Horton. The first song, "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow", by La Farge, concerns the contemporary loss of Seneca nation land in Pennsylvania and New York (the Cornplanter Tract) due to condemnation for federal construction of the Kinzua Dam in the early 1960s. "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", tells about Ira Hayes, a young Marine of Pima descent, who participated in the flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II. After becoming an instant celebrity because of the iconic photo of this event, Hayes struggled with life in the postwar years. He returned to his native Gila River Reservation, where the government had built a dam that diverted critical water supply. Hayes died of alcoholism and in poverty. La Farge's song "Custer" mocks the popular veneration of General George Custer. He was overwhelmingly defeated, in part due to his own errors, by Lakota warriors at Little Big Horn. "The Talking Leaves" is about Sequoyah inventing written words in 1821, which increased Cherokee literacy.

At the time of the album's release, public sentiment towards native peoples was mostly ambivalent or actively opposed to indulging their concerns. "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" was released as the sole single from the album, reaching #2 on the country singles chart, while the album reached #2 on the country chart and #47 on the pop chart. But initial success for these was soon dampened as radio stations refused to play the songs and record buyers began to turn away from Cash's social activism. Facing censorship and an angry backlash from radio stations, DJs and fans for speaking out on behalf of Native people, Cash decided to fight back. He paid for a full-page ad that appeared in the August 22nd, 1964, issue of Billboard magazine, calling some DJs and programmers "gutless" for not playing the Ira Hayes song, and asking why they were afraid to do so. He left the question unanswered. Cash began a campaign to support the single by buying and sending out more than 1,000 copies to radio stations across America. By September 19, the song had reached number 3 in Billboard. In 2010, the Western Writers of America chose "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

This would not be the first time Cash would court controversy. He would frequently tackle social issues in his music, most famously using an invitation from President Nixon to perform at the White House in 1970 to play his song, "What Is Truth", a tune specifically aimed at supporting the young "hippie" generation of so-called "long-haired weirdos". Its sentiments of acceptance and understanding of the young generation were anathema to Nixon's stance, and the evening went down in history as notorious for its statement against authority.

Bitter Tears may suffer somewhat in that its use of certain terms has become archaic in modern times, but the sincere concerns for the abuses suffered by first nations people is without question.